Cannabis and teen smoking

Feedback: Regarding the column about cannabis use (Sept. 15):

“If teens are interested in marijuana they’re probably already using it! I live two blocks from a well-respected private school. Regularly, there are small groups of teenage boys smoking marijuana in the alley behind my house. I’m a huge supporter of cannabis, in my 70s, severely allergic to many pharmaceuticals. Cannabis has never given me respiratory issues like the vast amounts of second-hand cigarette smoke going into the lungs of seniors and children in this city.”

Ellie:

E-cigarettes, vaping and JUUL are part of the never-ending entrepreneurial quest for a new money-making craze, especially among youth and adolescents. Yet, according to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) JUUL products, with their aerosol mix of chemicals, nicotine, and fruit flavourings, deliver a higher concentration of nicotine than some other types of e-cigarettes. The latter have cartridges filled with nicotine and other chemicals, which turn into a vapour or steam that a person inhales. Back to cannabis — I’m in support of legalization, for adults, and especially for people like you for whom marijuana, smoked or ingested, offers major health benefits compared to other drugs, especially when replacing extremely addictive pain relievers.